The Crisis and Fiscal Policies in the Peripheral Countries of the Eurozone

This article explains the political causes of the current financial crisis of the eurozone peripheral countries (Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Ireland) and how the crisis affects their welfare states. It examines how their profoundly conservative governments (dictatorships in Spain, Portugal, and Greece and authoritarian regime in Ireland) during the post—World War II period and the dominance of their states by right-wing forces have made these countries very vulnerable to the speculations of the financial markets.